When you register on certain sites, they will ask you to copy a list of a few letters and numbers that they've written in an odd script, or on an odd background. The notion is that a human can read that script but a computer will cannot; the device thus foil automated attempts to sign up hundreds of times.

What do you call that device? According to today's paper, it's a captcha. A little research reveals that it stands for "Completely Automatic Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".

The squiggly, odd letters and digits are mainly to fool character recognition software, but spammers have found a way outof it. Having a human read the captcha text and submitting the correct ASCII text. I'd swear I'd posted here about it, but I can't find it. (Also, the acronym came first and the meaning latter, I'm pretty sure.)

I'd guess you're right, zmj, about the "acronym " coming first. My blog hosts also describe CAPTCHA™ as a "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart". That has all the hallmarks of a "backronym". See http://www.captcha.net/

Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

A bacronym is an attempt to turn a word which isn't an acronym, into one. They are often suggested by amateur etymologists trying to explain word origins. Two common such specious origins are: "posh" suggesting that first class travellers had a port cabin on the outward journey and a starboard one on the return, and "shit" supposedly written on packing cases of dung to avoid the possibility of forming an explosive mixture with sea water. Both of these are, of course, complete rubbish. Another common, and equally fallacious, one is "For Use of Carnal Knowledge".

A bacronym is an attempt to turn a word which isn't an acronym, into one. ... Both of these are, of course, complete rubbish. Another common, and equally fallacious, one is "For Use of Carnal Knowledge".

One of my fave phrases is when, in "The Goode Life" ("Good Neighbors" on US public TV), Felicity Kendal (be still my heart!) talks about her "posh frock", her best dress -- but maybe it's less about the phrase and more about the speaker, with me.

I let go of PortOutStarboardHome with great reluctance some years back, because I finally had to admit it was "zu schön, um wahr zu sein" ("too good to be true"), and even Onions (Oxford Dict. of Eng. Etym.) says it is of unknown origin.

Originally posted by Richard English:Very few acronyms existed prior to WW2 when such creations as RADAR became common. So you can be reasonably sure that any word that existed before about 1930 will not be an acronym.

I guess it would be a story in itself how the (U.S.) military (might have) kicked off the acronym craze (in English at least) -- and maybe also mid-word capitals (what's the term for that?) -- with their COMSUBPAC, COMNAVCENT, CIC, AWOL, BOQ, POTUS -- not to mention the internal spoofs of same SNAFU, FUBAR &c.

Getting back to MY Shandyan hobbyhorse in this context, the Germans have an acronym (AküFi) for the overuse of acronyms (Abkürzungsfimmel > abbreviation mania). There is a need for this term in German, since the language/culture has it to a degree that possibly surpasses even the Pentagon. Ofttimes you'll have an acronym like BAFöG that comes out of a single compound word: Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz (don't ask!).

There's even a well-known "four-letter word" acronym, dating back to at least the 19th century: L.M.A.A. (pronounced ellemmaahaah) (Leck mich am Arsch > kiss my ass) which, since the phrase comes from Schiller's play "Götz von Berlichingen" (about the disastrous Thirty-Years War), is commmonly known as the "Götz-Zitat". So people will simply pronounce the letters as above, or say "Du kannst mir ..." (Just go ahead and ...) without specifying "... am Arsch lecken".